UBC Sauder announces winners of Research and Teaching Awards for 2018/2019
UBC Sauder has recognized five faculty members for their outstanding achievements and efforts in teaching and research for the 2018/2019 academic year.
According to Darren Dahl, Senior Associate Dean, Faculty, the award winners are chosen by the Awards and Performance (APAC) Committee, who review nominations made by the faculty members, before making a decision. “There are nominations of faculty members, and then a committee of faculty members chooses the winners,” he explained.
The Killam Teaching Award of excellence in undergraduate teaching was awarded to Greg Werker, who has taught a number of courses in the Operations and Logistics division. He developed a service operations class, and also overhauled the upper-year supply chain management course. He has worked closely with Learning Services to identify and pilot new ways of using technology in teaching. “Many of the approaches I use in the classroom I’ve picked up by watching others teach, getting ideas from Food for Though sessions, and chatting with other faculty,” he said. “I’ve learned that I can connect with the class much more effectively when we discuss not just what we’re learning, but why it is important.”
Philippe Arrata has been awarded the CPA Teaching Award for excellence in graduate teaching. Arrata is Senior Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer at Best Buy Canada, and gained extensive experience in management consulting working for McKinsey and Deloitte before joining Best Buy. He teaches two courses for Masters’ students - Management Consulting and Corporate Division Support and Consulting Simulation. “My objective is to bring a practical application to the MBA curriculum, and I want to make sure that students practice the tools they have learned in their strategy, finance, marketing, and operations courses,” he said. “This is the secret sauce to being successful in industry - being able to call upon all these disciplines, and applying that knowledge in a relevant manner.”
The Alumni Talking Stick Award was awarded to Elizabeth Bowker for her innovation in teaching. Elizabeth is a Lecturer in the Law and Business Communications Group. Elizabeth’s innovative mind-set advanced Comm 390 in 2013 by making it one of the first required courses on campus to use the Flexible Learning model, and the first qualitative course to do so. Since 2014, Elizabeth been increasingly indigenizing the content of Comm 390. By the completion of the 2018/19 school year, every graduating UBC Sauder student will have spent a month carefully contemplating how they might engage with Canada’s Indigenous people. “As stewards of the land, Indigenous communities are very important business partners, especially for a real estate and resource-based economy such as B.C.’s,” she said. “We expect UBC Sauder graduates to be good partners and to be capable of participating in an economy that respects the rights of Indigenous people.”
David Hardisty has been awarded the Research Excellence Award, Junior Category. His research interests are in the psychological principles underlying decisions over time and environmentally sustainable purchases. Hardisty’s research on consumer judgement sheds light on how consumers make inter-temporal decisions, trading off future gains and future losses. “I study consumer decisions about the future, including financial, environmental, and health decisions,” he said. “Often, we aren't aware of the long-term impacts of our choices, but a timely prompt, framed in the right way, can help us make decisions that are better for ourselves and the world.” He has published more than 10 papers in the areas spanning marketing, psychology, management and environmental sciences. He also co-founded the Centre for Decision Insights for Business and Society at UBC Sauder.
Katherine White is the recipient of the Research Excellence Award, Senior Category. She has carved out a distinct area of expertise in consumer psychology and is well known for her work on social identity and social influence. She has also investigated and produced a stream of research on how consumers can be motivated to engage in prosocial and sustainable behaviours. “I am really interested in how we can encourage consumers to take some cost to the self - so maybe the option costs more or is more effortful - for an option that has some broader social good (it has benefits for others or for the planet),” she said. White has a stellar publication record, including 35 refereed articles published or in press, two book chapters, and two editions of Canada’s leading textbook in consumer behaviour.